The final activity of the Pandemic Period in April 2021 was to release the new 25 CD PEK Solo Box Set, Fundamental Units – Complete Solo Works from Jan 2020 to May 2021, collecting performances by PEK Solo projects during the Stupid Corona Virus.  I quite enjoyed doing these albums which departed from my usual practice (simultaneous real time performance of all the musical elements with an ensemble) to constructing solo works in the studio with overdubbing more in line with methods used to make most conventionally made pop culture studio albums. However, after producing over 25 hours worth of solo material prepared in this fashion, I was more than ready to return my focus to ensemble work.

For about 5 years, prior to the Pandemic, I had a third Saturday of each month Residency at a small venue called Outpost 186 in Cambridge. We also performed at Third Life Studios and other Venues, so a significant portion of each year’s output came from Live Performance to audiences in Venues. I always video taped everything, so the YouTube of these shows is from the videos published after-the-fact. The first LIVESTREAM performances from Evil Clown Headquarters were presented in November of 2018, and thereafter all of the sessions at ECH became both recording sessions and simultaneously LIVESTREAM performances to YouTube. As of this writing (12/26/2024) there are 150 LIVESTREAMED shows in the Live Section of the Evil Clown YouTube Site (https://www.youtube.com/@GiantEvilClown/streams). So for a brief period, we were doing both Live Shows and LIVESTREAM broadcasts until the Pandemic Shut us down. Emerging from the pandemic, the Live Performance Scene was drastically altered including the disappearance of both Outpost 186 and Third Life Studios, our primary Venues. We made a transition from a primarily Live Performance focus with some Studio/LIVESTREAM performances to a Primarily LIVESTREAM focus with a few Live Performances.

Sometime during the pandemic, Raffi and I started discussing in earnest exchanging the studio space and the theater room in the house to address these issues. In September 2021, I purchased a 48 channel Soundcraft Mixing console which Joel and I set it up in the old studio space to learn while planning the new studio space. I spent the next year planning the new studio, making drawings of how I wished to use the space and acquiring the additional studio equipment that would be needed.

Construction began in October 2022 and was essentially completed in mid-January 2023. The studio upgrade represented a major modification to the house and a huge upgrade to the studio. The old studio had the board in the same room as the musicians which is obviously not ideal, especially not for a live-to-2-track mix with no mixdown afterwards.

I had my electrician add a new panel so I could put in a bunch of new circuits. The electrical for the lighting needs to be kept separate from the audio electrical, and I also wanted dedicated circuits for the board and its associated equipment, the video mixing station and its associated equipment, and several distinct circuits in the main studio room so there would not be too much electrical load from amps on any one circuit. I installed a silent Mitsubishi spilt air conditioning unit so that we could cool the room without adding any appreciable noise load in the studio space. I moved the existing noisy AC into the mixing room.

I removed the wall between the two middle floor bedrooms used previously as music storage rooms, and then cut a new interior door between this combined space for mixing and the new main studio room. I cut a new exterior door from the mixing room to the side of the house for the musicians to load in through and closed up the door that went in at that location directly to the studio room. I cut a new exterior sliding glass door in the kitchen to provide egress to the deck and the parking behind the house and so I could stop using the exterior door at the back of the main studio room. I covered the large bay window that overlooks the backyard in the studio room with a temporary wall so that we can control the light in the space and I could use the new wall to mount instruments.

The reconfigured space is setup for permanent installation of instruments on the walls around the perimeter of the room. I used the slat system to hang my keyboards, electronic instruments, and a nice Mackie mixer from the wall between the mix room and the main room. I bought a Nord Stage 3 synth/digital piano for this wall so we have a good piano instrument previously lacking from the set up. We use this mixer to combine the signal from these electronic instruments and send the stereo to the Soundcraft console in the Mix Room. In the corner where the disabled exterior door was, the slat system hangs a row of large Almglocken bells and a balafon over a custom table for a xylophone with storage below. The custom table wraps around the corner and has room for some orchestral Anvils, wood blocks and Tibetan Bowls. More recently a trap table extends into the room which holds the Noise Tower and electronics for the daxophone and gravichord.

The next area is open for musicians but has one of the racks mounted into the wall and the 40 inch gong hanging high on the wall behind where the players go. On the left end there are pegs and mounted baskets for headphones, headphone cable management, XLR cables and TRS cables. In the Far corner is the third rack with another Mackie mixing board that gathers 6 mics of the wall mounted percussion instruments into stereo which is sent to the Soundcraft console in the mixing room.

The back wall which covers the old bay window is covered with percussion instruments. On the right, there are two octaves of crotales above a glockenspiel, next there is a 25 inch gong above a large extremely resonant plate gong, next there is a heavy gong stand which holds the brontosuarus bell (a 40 inch long cow bell) and two heavy bells made from large tanks. Many other small percussion instruments are mounted to this rack including wood & temple blocks, cowbells, chimes, small cymbals, and others. Next is a 25-inch Chinese gong above another 25 inch gong. Finally, a Danmo (a Vietnamese wood block instrument) is above the Englephone (a rack with about 30 resonant tuned cowbell like instruments made by a guy named Engle.)

There were a number of shifts in the Roster that occurred over the pandemic, most notably the withdrawal of our primary drummer Yuri Zbitnov. However, the Roster is large and the Pandemic created a lot of change in people’s lives – some moved, others changed their musical practices, and some just became unavailable for other reasons; of course, new people are always joining the Roster also. The net impact of the transformation of the Roster is the retirement of some of the ensembles and the spawning of some new ensembles.

Yuri’s withdrawal meant the core unit for Leap of Faith changed again from trio to the duet of PEK and Glynis Lomon. Generally a performance is credited to Leap of Faith when both PEK and Glynis are on the set. Performances were credited to String Theory through 2019 when the ensemble was PEK, Glynis and other string players without drums – this configuration would now be credited to Leap of Faith, so the String Theory ensemble name is retired. Mekaniks and Chixculub were two other projects involving Yuri that concluded in 2017 and 2018 due to the departure of others – These two ensembles were early ventures into more electronic improvisation territory.

Just before the halt for the pandemic, regular trumpeter, Eric Dahlman, brought in percussionist Michael Knoblach who plays found objects and unusual instruments. After the pandemic, I formed a new ensemble called Expanse with several variations, to feature work with Michael. 2021 also saw formation of Simulacrum, a spinoff from Metal Chaos Ensemble with the horns and electronics but without necessarily the strong presence of drum set. Axioms, a Jazz-Poetry Project with Albey onBass and Jane SpokenWord had one set in 2018 and seven more between 2021 and 2023 before Albey and Jane moved back to NYC – Albey shows up every once in a while from NYC and at some point Albey and Jane will likely be in the area again and we’ll see more Axioms sets. 2024 saw the formation of Neurodivergent (AKA the Wacky Banter Ensemble) featuring Count Robot, DNA Girl, and Tim Mungenast who go way back as a unit and bring a more pop-culture aesthetic as well as a very interesting aesthetic of improvised words to an Evil Clown setting.

The Next Section of the Essay is comprised of the Year-End Summary Narrations for each of the years in the Contemporary Period. These summaries lay out in more detail the activities from each year and are repeated at the top of each year’s Performance Page accessed from the Main Menu at the Top of the site. The Performance Pages also include the Artwork, details of performance date, venue, ensemble and links to the Evil Clown Album Page and other web-posts for each Album.

I immediately instituted a grand plan to build the Evil Clown Roster with enough players to perform Improvisation Orchestra performances of Graphic Scores following up on my 1994 Composition Expansions. I also determined to massively broaden the available resources now that I had more resources available. I started buying lots more horns, tons of percussion instruments, electronic instruments and all manner of miscellaneous sound makers.

In parallel with Leap of Faith, Yuri and I also formed Metal Chaos Ensemble to explore the new worlds of sound brought about by all the metal percussion I was accumulating. Starting with the duet Null Theory, we did more duets and also larger groups where we invited other percussion players and some more rock/pop culture oriented players.

I started renting the Lilypad Jazz club in Cambridge for live shows where we would perform a two CD length performance with smaller sub-units for the first hour and everyone together for the second hour as the Leap of Faith Orchestra. Some of the LOFO sets included up to 10 musicians. Leap of Faith also played several shows in NYC with the core quartet.

By the end of 2015 I had started Turbulence for wind instruments, and String Theory for me and Glynis with other String players. The plan was to combine Leap of Faith with Metal Chaos Ensemble, Turbulence, and String Theory into the Leap of Faith Orchestra which would perform large ensemble improvisations and work towards graphic score performances, the first one of which, The Expanding Universe, was performed in 2016.

PEK – 8 January 2024

Below is repeated the Narrative section of the

Performance Summary for 2017

Performances 2017

2017 was a huge year for Evil Clown. The pace increased and by the end of the year we recorded 38 albums. There were 2 Leap of Faith Orchestra Graphic Score performances, Possible Universes and SuperClusters.

The LOFO preparation performances moved to a new venue, Third Life Studios in Somerville. The venue was large enough for 15 or so musicians in the ensemble and the load-in was straight forward. For each show I brought a full van of gear and the musicians were encouraged to play these auxiliary instruments along with their primary axes. These shows were billed as Leap of Faith Orchestra and Sub-Units: The first hour was short pieces by smaller groups and the second hour was everyone together. For several years we did a 5 shows a year (one every other month taking off Jan/Feb).

Yuri and I formed the short lived space-rock trio Chixculub, bringing in electric bassist Jason Adams who played with Yuri in a rock band called Axemunkee. Our first set was Creation Event. The music was interesting and successful, but Jason was very busy and hard to schedule, so this unit ended up only performing 3 sets.

My friend Mike Grialou (AKA Space), who I played with for 5 years in the 80s before moving to Boston to attend Berklee, visited for a week and we did 2 albums by a special Metal Chaos Ensemble which we called Space Metal Chaos Ensemble (Electropositivity, ElectroNegativity).

There were more sessions by the active ensembles of that year at Evil Clown Headquarters and Outpost 186: PEK Solo, Turbulence, Turbulence Doom Choir, String Theory, Metal Chaos Ensemble.

PEK – 1/9/2024

Below is repeated the Narrative section of the

Performance Summary for 2019

Performances 2019

2019 was a huge year for Evil Clown. There was a single performance of a graphic score by the Leap of Faith Orchestra, The Photon Epoch, at the best room we have ever had, Pickman Hall at the Longy School of Music. This is a state of the art venue with an amazing room sound and a large stage. Pianist Peter Cassino who played with Glynis quite a bit and was the pianist on the first Score The Expanding Universe, was a faculty chair and was able to give us one of his yearly performances in the space.

The final 3 performances of Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units took place at Third Life. Susan’s lease was up and due to the gentrification in Union Square her rent was going to increase so much she couldn’t keep the room. At the end of the run I compiled all of the performances into a massive 25 CD box set called The Complete Leap of Faith Orchestra & Sub-Units Performances at Third Life Studios (2017-2019).

Yuri and I were invited to a rock show at a nice venue in Delaware. We decided to bring a Power Trio Edition of Metal Chaos Ensemble which we thought would appeal the the Grateful Dead oriented rock audience that would be there (Basilisk). Albey was going to be the bass player, but he and Jane moved to New Orleans and we replaced him with Mike Gruen who played electric bass with a much more rock leaning style.

Below is repeated the Narrative section of the

Performance Summary for 2020

Performances 2020

2020 was a very eventful year for Evil Clown. After two shows in the beginning of the year, Outpost 186 got into a beef with the City of Cambridge and the shows stopped. We thought for a minute that it would get resolved but the pandemic hit right after and the room is still not back 4 years later.

I was really bummed about the interruption since we had tremendous momentum and were pumping out a huge amount of high quality music. We did about 10 great sessions in the first few months of the year including Principles of an Open Future, which we recorded for Kevin Reilly’s label Relative Pitch.

Yuri decided that he was not going to continue playing with Leap of Faith, but I convinced him to go on with Metal Chaos Ensemble. His last set with the sextet edition of MCE was The Riddle of Steel took place right before the pandemic got bad. I cancelled 5 or 6 really exciting sessions that were in the calendar and took a few weeks off. Then I spent a minute compiling the second huge Evil Clown Box set (25 CDs) Best of MCE 2015 to 2020. Yuri came back for one more MCE session, Don Quixote, where we used overdubbing to make a thick mix with just the two of us performing. Then he decided to withdraw from Evil Clown altogether.

Most of 2020 and a chunk of 2021 was spent on solo projects and comprise the bulk of the work by the PEK Solo ensemble. The solo albums fall into a few categories with a bunch of them being either PEK Solo – A Quartet of PEKs or PEK Solo – An Orchestra of PEKs. These albums were constructed with overdubbing and studio techniques. Notable in this group is a massive 3 CD major work entitled PEK Solo – An Orchestra of PEKs – Some Truths Are Known.

Oddly enough, I think I spent more time actually playing my instruments to create the 25 albums from 2020 than I do in a year where there are ensemble albums and we usually record around 35 albums.

Metal Chaos Ensemble resumed in the fixed rock-leaning sextet edition with Steve Niemitz taking over the drum chair from the retired Yuri. The first new set was called Tinier Even than Science. Steve lives in western Mass about an hour and a half drive away, so MCE sets are less frequent due to the difficulty of scheduling them and Steve’s travel.

I formed a new MCE Spin-off ensemble called Simulacrum around the trio of me, Eric Woods and Bob Moores. The intent of this unit is to increase the electronics and loose the drum set from the MCE configuration. The first set was called Hyperreality.

Over the years since 2015 I had accumulated so much equipment that setting up for a session was a major exercise every time since the studio room was between my housemate Raffi’s space and the kitchen and theater room in the back of the house which meant that much of the gear needed to be stored away after every set. We started planning a major renovation of the house which would improve the situation for both me and Raffi. This project would take place in Fall 2022 and the first bit of 2023.

PEK – 1/9/2024

Also new for the year was the growth in size of Turbulence, the band formed around horn players. Once an ensemble reaches 8 players, I tack “Orchestra” on to the end of the band name. I’ve got lots of horn players in the roster and the Turbulence sets for 2022 were mostly credited to Turbulence Orchestra. This band has a drummer and a bass player and is the most Free-Jazz oriented of any of the active ensembles which are more on the Free Improvisation end of the spectrum.

Almost all the performances of the year were YouTube Livestreams from Evil Clown Headquarters, but there was one excellent Leap of Faith performance at the Lilypad in Cambridge (Spectral Sequences) and one excellent Leap of Faith performance (The Symbolic Method) at Bonnie Kane’s Friday Experiment in Holyoake MA.

Active ensembles for the year are Leap of Faith, Axioms, Perturbations, Simulacrum, Metal Chaos Ensemble, Expanse, Expanse Meets the JMDE Quartet, and the Leap of Faith Chinese Orchestra featuring Jimmy Zhao and other Chinese musician guests.

PEK – 1/9/2024

Below is repeated the Narrative section of the

Performance Summary for 2024

Performances 2024

2024 was the most productive year to date for Evil Clown. Lot’s of things long in the works have converged.

The Evil Clown History falls into two periods – The Archival Period (1993 – 2001) and the Contemporary Period (2015 to the Present). I quit being musically active in 2001 for a long time to focus on my day job which was very demanding of my time. Eventually, the job mellowed out and in 2015 I started back up again with a vengeance, broadening the scope of my sound palette with many new horns, percussion, electronics and other instruments – A significant expansion over the 6 horns I used during the Archival Period.

The end of 2024 marks the completion of a full decade of the Contemporary Period which started with a few PEK Solo recordings and Leap of Faith – Regenerations in early January of 2015. The Contemporary Period is actually now longer than the Archival Period and has far more recorded output (355 albums vs. 95 albums). The Archival Period was actually very busy, but not as well documented, with about half the output Leap of Faith (47 albums) and half the output other Projects (48) which include a bunch of Projects where I was more of a side-man or collaborator than the leader.

The Evil Clown Headquarters studio renovations were complete enough to start Livestreaming sessions in January 2023. All the ECH sessions from 2023 were broadcast from the new performance space. Over the course of 2023 we worked out final issues like the lighting and cameras and really learned to leverage the new broadcasting and recording environment.

Evil Clown Ensembles have always worked in a really long format. We have generally performed a single performance length piece for every show (live in person or Livestreamed) of an hour or more in length. This long format has a lot of advantages for me including simplifying production issues, the number of titles needed, and letting the improvisations breathe and organically develop. However, the music industry is not well set up for long works and the web/phone obsessed culture we live in seems to have very short attention spans…

In 2023, CD Baby, the company I use for broad digital distribution, changed their policy so that a single track CD (even if it was 70 minutes long) could only be distributed as a Single which would sell for at most $2. So, I started recording a “5-Minute Shorty” at the end of the soundcheck before we roll the LIVESTREAM so that each new album contains 2 tracks and we can still play the 70-minute duration that otherwise meets my aesthetic criteria.

I started to release Compilation Albums of the Evil Clown Shorties from each session across all the different projects. Volume 1 was completed in 2023, Volume 2 started in 2023 and completed in early 2024, and Volumes 3 and 4 completed in 2024. As of this writing, Volume 5 is about half complete and will be ready in a few months in 2025. Another advantage of the Shorties is that they make it on to Spotify who also has weird rules about the length of pieces that they will accept.

The other Live Performance was at an Avant Garde Festival in Rochester NY called the Avant Garde A Clue Festival. This was a long 7-hour drive for a short 20-minute performance, but we played to a nice crowd of people who were mostly familiar with modern noise-oriented improvisation and who likely had not seen anything like what the Leap of Faith quartet edition performed there with acoustic instruments only.

Before the Pandemic we played maybe 20 shows per year and the balance of the sets were at Evil Clown Headquarters. I am happy with the new model of a few live performances to audiences and most of the performances being LIVESTREAMs. We are presenting a broad palate improvisation concept that needs a lot of equipment to realize. The ECH studios are permanently set up for this and no mass hauling of equipment is needed to present these ideas. The LIVESTREAMs are attended by viewers in real time and watched from the YouTube channel afterwards in both the full length and Shorty versions. This model of performance gains us more viewers and listeners than we were ever regularly achieved through live performance in venues.

The Live Performances are all special for some reason and since the Broad Palate Idea is so well represented by the ECH LIVESTREAMs, I travel much lighter to these shows than I did in the past.

The Evil Clown Saga marches on stronger than ever. I can’t wait to see what exciting developments the future brings!!!

PEK – 12/24/2024